A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to image forming apparatuses such as photocopiers, facsimile machines, and printers, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for refilling a toner supply in an image forming apparatus.
B. Background of the Invention
Photocopiers, facsimile machines, and laser printers for printing images using toner are well known. One such apparatus is described in Japanese Publication No. 2003-098811 (hereinafter “JP '811”), and is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. JP '811 discloses an image forming apparatus having a rotating toner bottle configuration, where a refillable/replaceable toner bottle is rotated within and relative to the image forming apparatus during the image forming process. Of course, many other configurations are also plausible, as would be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading this disclosure.
As understood, when the toner bottle becomes spent, it must be replaced by inserting a new/refilled toner bottle in its place. To facilitate proper alignment of the new/refilled toner bottle within the image forming apparatus (e.g., a toner opening in the toner bottle with a receiving opening in the image forming apparatus), rotation of the spent toner bottle may be stopped in a predetermined orientation relative to the image forming apparatus, such as having a receiving portion of the image forming apparatus in a top dead center position. The spent toner bottle can be removed, and a new toner bottle can be inserted by aligning the new toner bottle in a corresponding top dead center position.
Various potential problems exist, however, with the above described configuration. For example, if the power supply to the image forming apparatus unexpectedly stops, the spent toner supply bottle may not stop in the predetermined orientation. Similarly, should the orientation change after rotation is stopped (e.g., an operator unintentionally rotates the assembly when removing the spent toner bottle), the orientation will not be in the predetermined orientation. As such, the operator will not know the proper orientation for inserting the new toner bottle. Thus, a need exists for an image forming apparatus having an improved method and apparatus for refilling a toner supply therein.